A Story of A Caterpillar
There was a time, he wasn't known to many. He was very shy and a consolidated being to the strangers who lurked around him. But one thing was guaranteed to him by the Laws of Nature. It was sure, he would never stop growing. Metamorphosis was inevitable for his survival. Though he was gradually adapting and maturing, becoming a butterfly wasn't the need of the hour shortly after yesterday.
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| GRAPES, RAISINS OR WINE? |
Being a shy-guy made him weaker, the caterpillar wrote down his bucket list. The No. 1 item in it was to reduce the gap between him and the pacing world. Why did he decide so? It struck in his mind that an introvert can also become a respected public leader.
"Tree Talks", a biannual event where great speakers came with their ideas. The caterpillar had attended one last month. The thought of speaking in front of an international audience of ants, moths, ladybugs, beetles, crickets, spiders, bees and everyone else from the Arthropoda phylum, always reverberated in his grain-sized brain.
So he was in a mission to improve his social presence around the insect kingdom. The Queen of the wise honey bees, once, had advised him to practice 'small talks' with strangers. According to her, the Farmer Ants were the greatest hard workers.
One fine afternoon, the caterpillar was commuting from work to home in the local river stream on a banana leaf. His attention was grabbed by a salesman selling raisins, black and brown. It was a farmer ant with a handful of dried berries.
The caterpillar couldn't afford to buy, but he was determined to approach the ant and do his first ever small talk. The ant and the caterpillar together alighted from the leaf.
He followed the farmer ant for a few meters. For a duration of seven seconds a million thoughts, encouraging and discouraging, crossed through his heart and mind. The 8th second was a long one but the caterpillar decided to do it no matter what and sneaked a tap on the ant's shoulder. He called, "Excuse me, please. I have a quick question."
"Yah! Go ahead." The ant stammered in his rural accent.
"I heard you selling raisins. Which is more profitable to sell? Grapes, Raisins or Wine?" He jabbered quickly.
"No. We do not sell grapes much. They are the least valuable. Usually what happens is we do not get the desired rate for the grapes. They are perishable and before they began rotting, we are forced to sell them to the traders at low yields. Also the traders work in groups. No one dares to give the cost we deserve. The trader's union have predetermined rates. So we rarely do grapes."
"Then why raisins?" The shy caterpillar asked softly.
"Generally... with raisin farmers like us, our income occurs only during festive seasons. In Diwali, we sell a lot of raisins."
"Oh. Okay." The caterpillar nodded, "Why not wine? It must fetch you more money, right?"
"Maybe. Other farmers from our village sell their produce for wine making but we do not." The ant said in his cracking voice. He reasoned, "because, my family is very religious. Money is inferior for us than our faith."
Saying his final words and partly answering the caterpillar's question, the ant crawled ahead with his bag of raisins. Meanwhile, the novice caterpillar was bewildered. He bowed his head and responded to the ant's back, "Thanks for your time, sir."
The caterpillar didn't understand the faith part, but was satisfied as he overcame his fear. He was now a better version of himself than who he was yesterday.
INSIGHTS
Let me define the story's scenario...
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| A TEDx Event I attended recently |
The "Tree Talks" is the Ted Talks. The Queen of the honey bees is someone I know but won't name here. The local river stream is the Mumbai Suburban Railway. The farmer ant selling raisins was a man really selling raisins yesterday in the local train.
The above conversation happened with me when I was travelling yesterday, from Matunga to Thane. So, the story of the caterpillar is based on a true incident. My dear readers, you might have started guessing who the caterpillar really is. I declare, you are partly correct and partly wrong. The caterpillar is an exaggerated version of whom I was in the past. But I know, this kind of fearful caterpillar exists in every human being who fears some or the other thing.
My readers, please do not let your fears take over. After all, every beautiful butterfly was a caterpillar once.
